Long term energy solutions to global energy challenges increasingly include renewable fuels. Renewable energy sources include electric, solar, wind and biofuels. Only biofuels have the potential to act as feedstock for existing refineries and the resulting biofuel will have similar molecular structure to the refined petroleum products currently used for transportation fuel. Current refineries have the capability for hydrogenation and hydrocracking to further refine the fatty acids into usable transportation fuels. Advanced refining reduces the possibility of gelling in lower temperatures which is a criticism of biofuels. Leading biofuel sources include corn, sugar cane, palm, soy and algae. Algae has the potential to produce impressive increases in gallons/acre of oil production compared to other biofuel sources. Some report yields up to 100 times greater (Tachibana, C. (2009). Algae Biofuels: From pond Scum to Jet Fuel (Oregon, United States, RenewableEnergyWorld.com), pp. 2). Unlike agricultural sources for biofuel which require extensive land allotments that compete with natural forests and habitats and compete with food production imparting upward pressure on world food prices, algae-based biofuel can be grown in areas unfavorable for traditional agriculture.
Renewable energy reduces dependency on limited foreign-controlled petroleum supplies. Biofuels burn cleaner and produce less greenhouse emissions. Additionally, the plants consume CO2 to contribute to the mitigation of global warming.
Many challenges for biofuels remain, including availability and distribution of biofuel pumps, capacity for large scale production, pollution from the extraction processes inherent of biofuels, and current tariff and subsidy policies which benefits only corn-based ethanol.
“Currently about 9 percent of the nation's liquid fuel supply comes from biofuels—most of it corn-based ethanol. And by 2022 Congress has mandated that biofuel levels reach 36 billion gallons.” (Mouawad, 2009 Exxon to Invest Millions to Make Fuel From Algae. In NY Times Com (New York, The New York Times).) This renewable fuel standard (RFS) poses a challenge for algae-based fuels as the Federal law does not include algae in its recipe of acceptable biofuels that should make up this 36 billion gallons.
There are several emerging algae-based biofuel companies pursuing commercial biofuel production. Sapphire Energy, based in La Jolla, Calif. recently announced “it would be producing 1 million gallons of diesel and jet fuel a year by 2011, double its initial estimates” (Howell, K. (2009). Is Algae the Biofuel of the Future? In Scientific American (Greenwire).) and that “it will be producing more than 100 million gallons a year by 2018 and 1 billion gallons a year by 2020” (Howell, 2009) almost 3 percent of the RFS. Sapphire is one of the largest and most respected players in the industry with CJ Warner, a 10 year BP oil executive, as CEO and listing Bill Gates and the Rockefeller family as key supporters.
Continental Airlines successfully tested Sapphire Energy's algae-based biodiesel jet fuel in a test flight on Jan. 7, 2009 in a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Continental reported an increase in mileage attained with the algae-based biofuel due to lower burning temperatures in the engines.
Exxon Energy, a leader in global energy, has partnered with Synthetic Genomics, an algae-based biofuel company led by genomics expert J. Craig Venter. Exxon-Synthetic Genomics utilizes genetically engineered microalgae to continuously secrete oil and potentially simplify the harvesting process by simply skimming the oil from the surface.